Results for "nasa mars curiosity"

On Thursday, we reported that the Mars Curiosity rover had begun its first drill on the Red Planet. Upon the initial report, the hole was a cylindrical spot about 0.8-inches deep and 0.6-inches across. Now NASA has announced that the drilling is complete, with the rover having bored into the Martian soil about 2.5-inches.

The Curiosity rover on Mars has been keeping itself quite busy lately, most recently boring into Mars' red surface in order to find signs of life. However, in its downtime, the rover likes to take a lot of photos, including self-portraits, but this time around, Curiosity came across a strange chunk of metal sticking out of the ground? What could it be?

NASA's Curiosity rover, which is currently putzing its way around Mars, has just drilled its way into Martian soil for the first time, making a perfectly cylindrical hole on the surface of the Red Planet. The hole is approximately 0.8-inches deep and about 0.6-inches across. From the photo below, the hole looks much bigger, but it seems NASA only need just a slight sample of the planet's dirt.

Many space geeks got excited a while back when the Curiosity rover discovered an object on the ground some called the Mars flower. It turned out to be a piece of plastic from the rover itself. Curiosity has now discovered another interesting and strange objects sitting on a rock on the surface of Mars.

As far as NASA's Mars rovers go, Curiosity has been getting the lion's share of the attention lately. Curiosity isn't alone on the red planet, however, with Opportunity beginning its 10th year on the surface of Mars this week. Opportunity touched down on Mars on January 24, 2004, with the original goal of finding out if the water had ever been present on the surface.

It's time to check in with our old buddy Curiosity as it makes its way across the surface of Mars. NASA announced today that the rover may have found its first rock sample, which could provide clues about whether or not the planet could have at one time supported microbial life. We're not sure yet if Curiosity will drill into this rock to pull out a sample - first it needs to make its way over to the rock to have a closer look.

Considering how far away Mars rover Curiosity is - and how busy it is chewing through rock samples - we're guessing the exploring robot had a little help from NASA putting together its New Year greeting for Times Square last night. Teased in the final hours of 2012, the clip was beamed up to the huge Toshiba screens above the crowds as part of the tech company's official sponsorship of the New Year celebrations.

NASA's Curiosity rover has set mountain climbing as its New Year's Resolution, with the intrepid space explorer headed up a Martian peak for its 2013 challenge. The nine-month trek - punctuated with pitstops for drilling and sample analysis - will see Curiosity clamber up the 3 mile high Mount Sharp at the center of the Gale Crater it landed near, further hunting evidence that the red planet might once have supported microbial life. Before that, however, Curiosity couldn't resist snapping another self-portrait - with the mountain clearly visible in the background.

NASA's Curiosity rover may be getting us close-up to Mars, but the European Space Agency's Mars Express probe has a far more macro perspective as it beams back the first shots to be received at the new Malargüe space tracking station. Powered up earlier this month, the ultra-sensitive radio antenna funneled back shots from the Mars Express' Visual Monitoring Camera showing the red planet from over 6,000 miles away.

If you're familiar with Foursquare then you know all about the "badges" that the service awards its users for checking into specific types of places multiple times. This time around, though, NASA and Foursquare have teamed up and launched a Curiosity rover-themed badge that users can earn for checking into science-related places frequently.